My dog has a UTI. She had one about 7 months ago and it the vet said that she drinks too much water and it lowered the PH of her urine. It occurred, I believe because she had to hold it too long- a fact which causes me guilt to this day. I had a stretch of a week at work where I was away from home for more than 12 hours. It was a stressful situation, but she was put on antibiotics and it cleared within a few days.
As you know, Labs are very tolerant by nature, and that includes pain. I noticed the tell-tale signs on Thursday night-straining, urgency, etc. I lost my job in the mortgage bus. about 4 months ago and new jobs have FINALLY started to turn up; I was interviewing constantly in the last week. I believe that she forced to "hold it" and was drinking a lot of water while I was gone.
Aside from her assumed discomfort, and the part that breaks my heart even more is that I cannot afford a trip to the vet. I can't even afford to eat every day, opting instead, to make sure that my dog can eat good quality food (always Nutro or Iams Healthy Naturals) and that the rent and utilities get paid. I did start her on Amox - 500mg 2X a day and it does seem to be helping. She only squats 3 or 4 times while on our walks and that's not much more than she does normally. Compared to about 20 times on Thursday night, that's an extreme improvement.
She only had 4 doses of the meds so far, but I want to know how long should I expect to see a little blood in her urine. There were a few bright drops a first, now there are only a VERY few pink drops.
How long is it normal to see that? I remember the last time she had this, it didn't go away very fast, but I was much more confident then, since I had just dropped $270 for the vet's opinion, their medication, and some tests.
She is such a good girl, very sweet, she's still got a ravenous appetite, her activity level is the same, she's not bringing her leash to me, and she's drinking plenty of water. You would never know that she's got anything wrong. Nevertheless, my heart is broken that I cannot provide better medical treatment for her than to give her amoxicillin and take her out every couple of hours. She is my baby and I can't bear the thoughts that this is happening. I've been in tears since Thursday night and I wish more than anything else that I had a better option and money to spend.
What should I do? What would you do in my spot? My heart is broken.